States Reorganisation Commission

The States Reorganisation Commission was constituted by the Central Government of India under the States Reorganisation Act and consisted of Hon. Fazal Ali, Kavalam Madhava Panikkar, and H.N. Kunzru. The Report submitted by the Committee in 1955 known as SRC Report went in to the problems of Telangana and Andhra regions, and the arguments for and against the merger of two regions.

Para 369 to 389 of SRC deals with the merger of "Telangana region of Hyderabad State" and Andhra State to establish Andhra Pradesh state. You can find this Telangana/Andhra related part of the report(including scanned copies) at Wikisource

S.R.C cheated the Tamilnadu

On the basis of the percentage of the people speaking Tamil, the S.R. Commission recommended for the transfer of four taluks namely, Agasteeswaram, Thovalai, Kalkulam and Vilavancode to Tamil Nadu from the State of Travancore- Cochin. The same yard stick was used for the transfer of Shenkotta Taluk to Tamil Nadu. While dealing with Devikulam and Peermede taluks, even though the majority was Tamil – speaking people and the representatives to the State Assembly were Tamilians as in the case of the above indicated five taluks, the commission used a different yard stick and recommended to retain in Travancore – Cochin State. This cheating may be attributed to one reason, ie, one of the three members of the commission Sardar K.M. Panicker was a Malayalee. Even though Shenkotta was fully transferred by the commission the Joint – Committee appointed to fix the exact boundaries of the states, divided Shenkotta Taluk and allowed Travancore – Cochin State to retain a major portion. Thus the S.R. Commission and the Joint – Committee cheated the State of Tamil Nadu.

• …“the four southern taluks, namely, Agasteeswaram, Thovalai,

Kalkulam, Vilavancode, situated in what is known as Nanjil Nad, the percentage of Tamil speaking people is above 79. The wishes of the people of this area have been clearly expressed and there is no particular reason why these wishes should not be respected”.

• “The Shenkotta taluk is partly an enclave in Tirunelveli district of Madras

State and the percentage of Tamil – speaking people in this taluk is about 93. Physically and geographically it belongs to Tirunelveli district in which it should now merge”.

• “The Devikulam and Peermede taluks stand on a some what different

footing. These are hill areas which, for various economic and other reasons, are of great importance to the state of Travancore – Cochin”.

• “We do not regard the linguistic principle as the sole criterion for

territorial readjustments, particularly in the areas where the majority commanded by a language group is only marginal”.

• “We are generally in agreement with this view, but in our opinion, the

mere fact that a certain language group has a substantial majority in a certain area should not be the sole deciding factor”.

• “It should be mentioned that, owing to my long connection with Bihar, I

refrained form taking any part in investigating and deciding the territorial disputes between Bihar and West Bengal, and Bihar and Orissa – S.R.C Chairman, Hon. S. Fazl Ali (Sardar K.M. Panicker did not have this honesty).

• “The Joint-Committee have done a very good job in redrawing the map

of India, but my complaint is that they have not adopted the same principles in the settlement of the boundaries for the various states. Particularly I should like to say a few words about the Shenkottai Taluk. This is a Taluk which is proposed to be transferred from Travancore- Cochin to Madras. It was unfortunate that no member of the area was included in the Joint-Committee which settled the fate of the Tamil Taluks of Tranvancore - Cochin, and consequently our case was decided ex-parte.... In para 294 of their report, the SRC have said the ‘Shenkottai Taluk is partly an enclave in Thirunelveli District of Madras State and the percentage of Tamil speaking people in the Taluk is about 93. Physically and geographily it belongs to the Thirunelveli District in which it should now merge”.

Source

• Government of India's "Report of the States Reorganisation Commission, 1955".

See also

• States Reorganisation Act